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Anyone else enjoying retirement as much as me?

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Are you ready emotionally, and mentally for retirement? The thing to know is, it is perfectly okay to do nothing! It is hard. You must tell yourself that this is a happy moment. You are doing nothing today. You are sleeping in. You are watching Batman on TV. You are e-mailing everybody you cared about who is not on your work distribution list. You are riding your bike today and there is no schedule to be home, and no e-mail to answer from your phone.

Put your devices down. Keep them powered up, but stop looking at your phone dammit. It takes weeks to adjust for some. It does! It took me a year! What am I doing now? I am a TV star! Oh... um. YouTuber! Well, if there were 5 channels on TV, I would be a star of one of those short-lived TV shows, like Automan, or that Knight Rider knock off with the guy on the blacked out XR650L.

So. Do what you want. Go where you want. Make a list. And then... live it. There are all kinds of things to do in Vagas. Drive a race car, jump out of a plane, win $700 in a casino. I did all those things in one week. I was going 130MPH down the back straight in a V12 James Bond Car. OMG. What fun! My instructor told me I had balls. Then he grabbed the wheel from the passenger side and slid the car around the hairpin, just like in the movies. "Just a little more turn of the wheel", he said, "then you will have it." He explained to me that this particular car had a way with power slides.... just like in the movies. This is what it means to do nothing!

Your brain might try to reject the feeling of doing nothing. This is where your brain gets creative. Build something. Make something. Flesh out that garage you always wanted. Build a work bench. When your wife calls you for dinner, actually be on-time for once. Make a list of happy moments, and after a while, you will see what it means to do nothing. What it means is, you have a whole new and very different list of things to do.

One of the things that helped me, was to do something new, and make a video about it. Then, try and explain it to someone else. Record your fun for future generations. YouTube is a completely free global video storage. Think of it as family movies with permanence and a global reach. I even made a video that explains how to use an array of memory or thumb drives to make a huge portable storage device so you can carry around your videos. How much? 1 Terabyte? Maybe more.

I am a pretty decent computer guy. But, I sure can ride. Can I make videos? Uhhhh... I kinda can.

Crap man! People in town are starting to call me by name. Some guy on a road crew knew who I was. I gotta change my body armor or something.

 
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Two weeks into retirement and trying to find a day to day routine, I have noticed a few things.....

I could go broke in a hurry. I'm always finding excuses to go to academy, harbor freight, home depot or lowes.
I could get fat in a hurry. I have to keep busy or I find myself looking in the fridge or staring at a laptop.

In the past, it seemed a chore to get up early enough for a morning prayer / devotional, a little exercise and be at work by 7. Didn't really enjoy it and just never seemed to be enough time. An alarm clock was a must to get up on time.

Now I'm up around 5 with no alarm clock looking forward to the day. Out the door for a cool morning walk by day break. The things I used to dread making time for, I now enjoy doing.

I was sure I would eventually go back to work (at least part time). More money is always good, right?..... Now ....ehh.... maybe, maybe not.

Sure, I have to watch the spending but I've always had to do that... so no biggie......

Retirement is good. Life is better now
 
Welcome to the good life! I've never been much of a daily routine kinda guy; much more the spontaneous type. I think 20+ years of shift work kinda does that to you though, as routine is almost impossible. I spend most of my day these days just catching up on "round-to-its", and planning mini trips for the wife and I. She's still working, so we try to maximize the weekends with nearby kayaking trips and such. Glad to know you're enjoying it! :thumb:
 
slowindown said:
I could go broke in a hurry. I'm always finding excuses to go to academy, harbor freight, home depot or lowes.
I could get fat in a hurry. I have to keep busy or I find myself looking in the fridge or staring at a laptop.
Click to expand...
Those are serious deals can get you(me) in trouble in a hurry.
 
Rydah said:
After 24 years of shift work, I retired a few months ago, and am just loving it! No more waking up at 0330, missing birthdays and holidays, being away from my family at night and maybe worse of all, missing out on riding opportunites! I've been truly blessed throughout my life, and I hope some of you are sharing in the joy. My wife still has (hopefully) a couple years to go, but she bought me some cups; I think she shares my joy, lol.

View attachment 329213
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20 job number one retired with full benefits. 22 years job number two retired with full benefits. **** yes maybe more.
 
Some of you may remember my situation when covid hit. My busness childrens entertainment business got shut down. I went into pretty serious depression till my wife told me to go ride. I was 60. By the end of that year i still was not back to work but id figured out i could live well on my investments and did not need my buisness income and id really enjoyed my 9 months off. I chose to retire. With the added SS in 2 years it would bump my income
Id never had benifits on any job id ever had.and at 60 id had one week of paid vacation. I was used to paying for insurance but with obama care it became un afordable. We found medi share at about half the cost and half the deductable.
Retirement is awsome. It truely is childhood without parrents and i get to enjoy grand kids more. Iv run close to 20k miles a year the last three years on the bikes and life is good.
Its way cheeper to live even with the added bikes and trips. I have to remember to drive the truck to keep the battery up.
My fuel bill alone used to run $12,000 a year talk about a savings. Of course it was a write off.
Now selling my over priced place in TX and moving to Arkansas to buy more home, more land and 1/2 the cost.
..come see me i intend to do a lot of dirt in the north central, Jasper area and put in 2 30a rv hookups and a cabin or two for bunkabiker.com.
 
Tim Scholz said:
Retirement is awsome. It truely is childhood without parrents and i get to enjoy grand kids more. Iv run close to 20k miles a year the last three years on the bikes and life is good.
Its way cheeper to live even with the added bikes and trips...
Now selling my over priced place in TX and moving to Arkansas to buy more home, more land and 1/2 the cost.
..come see me i intend to do a lot of dirt in the north central, Jasper area and put in 2 30a rv hookups and a cabin or two for bunkabiker.com.
Click to expand...

I am very happy that retirement life has been good for you! The bunkabiker.com idea is very gracious of you. I hope to do the same thing some day.

Quick questions if you are comfortable answering. 1) Did your wife work (or have income) during the initial part of your retirement? 2) Has there been a change in lifestyle to 'live off your investments' given the recession / stock market woes?
 
Tim Scholz said:
Some of you may remember my situation when covid hit. My busness childrens entertainment business got shut down. I went into pretty serious depression till my wife told me to go ride. I was 60. By the end of that year i still was not back to work but id figured out i could live well on my investments and did not need my buisness income and id really enjoyed my 9 months off. I chose to retire. With the added SS in 2 years it would bump my income
Id never had benifits on any job id ever had.and at 60 id had one week of paid vacation. I was used to paying for insurance but with obama care it became un afordable. We found medi share at about half the cost and half the deductable.
Retirement is awsome. It truely is childhood without parrents and i get to enjoy grand kids more. Iv run close to 20k miles a year the last three years on the bikes and life is good.
Its way cheeper to live even with the added bikes and trips. I have to remember to drive the truck to keep the battery up.
My fuel bill alone used to run $12,000 a year talk about a savings. Of course it was a write off.
Now selling my over priced place in TX and moving to Arkansas to buy more home, more land and 1/2 the cost.
..come see me i intend to do a lot of dirt in the north central, Jasper area and put in 2 30a rv hookups and a cabin or two for bunkabiker.com.
Click to expand...
congrats, Tim! hopefully a touch cooler and no more drought.
 
Baja_Bound said:
I am very happy that retirement life has been good for you! The bunkabiker.com idea is very gracious of you. I hope to do the same thing some day.

Quick questions if you are comfortable answering. 1) Did your wife work (or have income) during the initial part of your retirement? 2) Has there been a change in lifestyle to 'live off your investments' given the recession / stock market woes?
Click to expand...
To answer your question on did my wife work. She worked with me so we were both off for a year and a half. Now she works part time and makes about the same as my SS check but she is self employed and can pic her hrs.
As far as investments i got out of all stocks after 2008. I bought and paid cash for rent homes. Between the rent and appreciating asset value they have far out paced even the most robust stock market in years. Rent and realestate are in my opinion the best hedges against high inflation and a rocky market. They only go up if a little slower.
One good move in real estate will put you in retirement. I made a investment 6 years ago on a depressed home on 27 acres that litterally chainged our future. All the rentals have averaged 2.5 times the purchase price in 10 years and i average 9k per year clear on each one.
The learning curve is steep, mistakes with the wrong renter is a given, the rewards though are phenomenal. Im converting the older homes to owner finance so no maintanance or property taxes the others will be handed over to a property management co.
Now back to working on a new headache. Learning about 1031 exchanges.
 
Hotair said:
Everybody in Rockport is retired , I can never find a helper when I need some work done!!!!!!
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Everyone in Rockport isn't retired, some are.... some just don't want to work.... or some like me are still just generating tax revenue..... :shock:
 
ChristopherThunder said:
Are you ready emotionally, and mentally for retirement? The thing to know is, it is perfectly okay to do nothing! It is hard. You must tell yourself that this is a happy moment. You are doing nothing today. You are sleeping in. You are watching Batman on TV. You are e-mailing everybody you cared about who is not on your work distribution list. You are riding your bike today and there is no schedule to be home, and no e-mail to answer from your phone.

Put your devices down. Keep them powered up, but stop looking at your phone dammit. It takes weeks to adjust for some. It does! It took me a year! What am I doing now? I am a TV star! Oh... um. YouTuber! Well, if there were 5 channels on TV, I would be a star of one of those short-lived TV shows, like Automan, or that Knight Rider knock off with the guy on the blacked out XR650L.

So. Do what you want. Go where you want. Make a list. And then... live it. There are all kinds of things to do in Vagas. Drive a race car, jump out of a plane, win $700 in a casino. I did all those things in one week. I was going 130MPH down the back straight in a V12 James Bond Car. OMG. What fun! My instructor told me I had balls. Then he grabbed the wheel from the passenger side and slid the car around the hairpin, just like in the movies. "Just a little more turn of the wheel", he said, "then you will have it." He explained to me that this particular car had a way with power slides.... just like in the movies. This is what it means to do nothing!

Your brain might try to reject the feeling of doing nothing. This is where your brain gets creative. Build something. Make something. Flesh out that garage you always wanted. Build a work bench. When your wife calls you for dinner, actually be on-time for once. Make a list of happy moments, and after a while, you will see what it means to do nothing. What it means is, you have a whole new and very different list of things to do.

One of the things that helped me, was to do something new, and make a video about it. Then, try and explain it to someone else. Record your fun for future generations. YouTube is a completely free global video storage. Think of it as family movies with permanence and a global reach. I even made a video that explains how to use an array of memory or thumb drives to make a huge portable storage device so you can carry around your videos. How much? 1 Terabyte? Maybe more.

I am a pretty decent computer guy. But, I sure can ride. Can I make videos? Uhhhh... I kinda can.

Crap man! People in town are starting to call me by name. Some guy on a road crew knew who I was. I gotta change my body armor or something.

Click to expand...
AWESOME! The phone thing is HUGE!
 
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